I grew up dirt-poor in a tiny community very aptly dubbed "Weedpatch." My parents were very religious, and I sometimes explain my love of books by saying - and only half jokingly - that everything I could possibly have done that would have been thought of as "fun" was considered a sin. So I read. And read. And then I found something else to read. Sometime around third grade, I started alternating the reading with writing - mostly poems at that time, but some short stories and essay-type "stuff." What can I say ... I had the bug, and I've never tried to get rid more...
